NOTE: Wow, this chapter did *not* want to be written. I don't know why some are so much harder than others, but this one was a beast!
Chapter Twenty-one
"Well...so much for this secret."
Neal pushed a set of wooden boxes away from the far wall of June's cellar. It took him a moment to find the edge of the hidden door. Prying it open he flicked on the flashlight he'd brought with him and shone it down the rough hewn stone tunnel. A family of rats scurried down the tunnel and back into the darkness. When Neal had first settled into June's he had gone looking for alternate routes out just in case he needed to leave in a hurry. He wasn't exactly sure where it lead to. Assuming it didn't follow streets and on his tracking anklet he didn't want record of him apparently walking through buildings rather than around them.
Peering down the dank tunnel Neal sighed heavily. He had been concerned enough when Peter had simply put a protection detail on him, having him escaping out of his apartment under the city was taking the paranoia a little far. Knowing that stalling in the cellar wasn't going to help Neal gripped the flashlight and ducked down as he stepped into the tunnel that was a few inches shorter than he was tall.
Neal encountered the rat and what he assumed were her four children several times as he made his way deeper into the underground passageway. After what Neal guessed was about a mile's worth of travel the tunnel ended in a flat wooden wall. Stepping up to the dead end Neal knocked on the barrier and was relieved to hear that it sounded hollow. Neal put his palms against the wood and pushed with far more force than was needed. The wood was rotted from decades of weather and broke free violently.
Neal stumbled forward through the shattered wood and ended up on his hands and knees. Disoriented by the sudden bright light that he found himself bathed in Neal blinked hard as he tried to adjust. Although the sun was shining at least the heatwave was finally giving up its suffocating hold on the city. Once he was able to look around Neal discovered that he was in a heavily wooded park with a steep cliff on one side that the tunnel exited from. There was a man walking his dog on a near by asphalt path who had stopped, both the dog and the owner were staring at him.
"Uh...hi." Neal smiled as he got to his feet and tried to rub the dirt off his hands on his pants. "Always wondered where this went. Uh...where am I?"
"Riverside Park." The man replied warily.
"Perfect. Thanks."
Furrowing his brow the man pulled on his dog's leash to continue their walk. Neal looked around to make sure that no one else had seen the entrance back to June's home. He collected up some branches and replaced the broken wood as best he could. He would need to have Mozzie come out quickly and put a proper hidden door across the entrance. Neal didn't need anyone sneaking into June's house through the tunnel in the park other than himself and Mozzie. Grateful that he'd worn dark pants Neal brushed his hands off on them again before finding his way out of the park and orienting himself towards Peter's house.
Arriving at Peter's house Satchmo was there at the window instantly pushing the curtain aside to greet him. Neal leaned to the side to peek inside the living room where he saw Elizabeth physically insisting that Peter stay seated on the couch while she got to her feet to answer the door. Opening the door Elizabeth invited Neal inside with a warm smile. She grabbed her keys off the davenport and exchanged places in the doorway with Neal.
"Elizabeth?" Neal asked concerned.
"There is no food in the house."
"Ah."
"Keep an eye on him for me?" Elizabeth asked sweetly.
"Of course." Neal assured.
From his place on the couch Peter shook his head at being left with a babysitter.
"Don't let him give you a hard time," Elizabeth added "he's in a bad mood."
"So...business as usual?" Neal chuckled.
"Pretty much." Elizabeth smiled. "Thank you."
"Anytime."
"Enough you two." Peter grumbled. "I watch over Neal, not the other way around."
"Whatever you say, Hon." Elizabeth teased.
Peter narrowed his eyes but there was a smile on his lips to prove to Elizabeth that he loved her despite the mocking. Neal hoped the banter between the couple was genuine and not just cover for his sake. Walking over towards Peter Neal sat down on loveseat opposite the couch that Peter was sitting on. Peter hadn't put on any socks, Neal assumed because it was too painful. His toes were a frightening cherry red with a few blisters where his skin had been in direct contact with the metal. Neal couldn't see the more dangerous damage on Peter's shins but what he could see gave him further resolve to find a way to get Alistair's fingerprints on Peter's gun. Getting close enough to him to get the print was going to be the trickiest part. He wasn't even sure how he was going to get back in the hospital let alone anywhere near the heavily guarded Alistair.
After a full minute passed with Neal just staring at his feet Peter clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth to get Neal's attention since he couldn't snap his fingers. Pulled away from his thoughts Neal looked up and found Peter glaring at him expectantly. It was the look he gave Neal when he knew he'd done something wrong and was giving him a chance at coming clean before things got any worse. However for the first time Neal wasn't sure what Peter wanted to hear, he felt like they had already talked through why he had followed Alistair orders.
"Peter?"
"Where's my weapon, Neal?"
"What?"
"Don't you dare play ignorant with me." Peter said with a deadly calm. "Not now. Not about this. Diana told me about the bank robberies. I want my gun back, right now."
"I don't have it." Neal replied honestly.
"Then call Mozzie and have him bring it over."
"Peter..."
"Neal, please...you don't understand how important this is to me."
"I understand, honestly I do." Neal replied seriously. "But do you have any idea how much slack multiple parties in the FBI have already given me over all of this?"
"Enough to hang themselves with?" Peter guessed in defeat.
"And then some."
"Damn it, Neal..."
"It's safe, it's not loaded. Mozzie and I are working on a way to get it back to the FBI that doesn't involve me getting arrested and the DC office launching an internal affairs investigation on both the White Collar and the Violent Crimes divisions here in New York. I promise you'll get it back, give me three days."
"Forty-eight hours." Peter countered.
"Deal."
"What were you thinking going into a bank with a gun?" Peter sighed in frustration.
"You know exactly what I was thinking."
Peter closed his eyes and took a deep breath before just nodding slightly. Leaning forward Peter rested his elbows on his knees to support his weight. Keeping his head bowed Peter stared vacantly at the floor. Becoming increasingly concerned Neal leaned forward. Peter had said before that he wasn't angry with him, but now Neal wasn't so sure.
"Peter..." Neal hesitated. "Are we okay?"
"We are." Peter replied sincerely. "I'm just frustrated. I'm looking for something that I can control and I'm not really find it anywhere."
"Is that why there's a protection detail outside my apartment? Or why I had to crawl through a mile of rat infested bootlegger tunnel to get here?"
"Rat infested?" Peter asked with a slight smile.
"Infested might be a bit of an exaggeration." Neal admitted. "You really should call it off though, I don't want to get you in trouble with Hughes. Alistair isn't coming after me."
"It's not Alistair I'm worried about."
Neal gave Peter a confused look. Peter went over everything with Neal that he had with Diana about Alistair and his theory that he hadn't acted alone or even as the main brains behind the highly coordinated attack. Neal listened without interruption until Peter was finished. Talking about the events like a case seemed to improved Peter's mood as he took his mind off his own problems and focused on trying to solve the larger crime at hand.
"So, what do you think?" Peter asked. "Am I crazy?"
"What makes you ask that?"
"You know how things never sound as good out loud as in your head? Well they sound even worse on the second telling."
"You know Alistair better than I do. If you think he was being used, then there is a good chance you're right."
"We need to find a connection between those three banks. There had to be something."
"At one point Alistair mentioned that he was using the robberies to spread the FBI's resources thin, I assumed it was to make it more difficult for them to concentrate on finding you."
"Maybe." Peter said doubtfully. "Three bank robberies isn't really enough to distract the FBI from a hostage situation."
"But like you said it might be enough to distract from some other crime."
"It's just sounds like too much work just create a diversion." Peter said playing devil's advocate. "What could be big enough that it would be worth all that trouble, but small enough that it didn't instantly catch our attention?"
"What if it wasn't the FBI that was meant to be distracted?" Neal asked.
"What do you mean?"
"If there is someone else behind this and it was a diversion, then it stands to reason that there is also another party as an intended target. Maybe the target is connected to the banks somehow."
"Now there is a thought." Peter nodded. "My first thought would be something about the safety deposit boxes."
"Nothing makes people with something to hide in a deposit box more nervous than a bank robbery. But again, why you? Why me? It doubles back to it being way too much trouble when you could have easily had anyone do a sloppy job of holding up three banks."
"Which is why I still think the end game had or has something to do with you. I think the last task Alistair would have set you on would have been more commensurate with your 'skills'. Presumably something you could do in a short amount of time."
"Safe cracking? I'm allegedly really good at that."
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."
"I said 'allegedly'." Neal chuckled.
"As if that magically makes it okay."
"Still if someone wanted to force me into doing something why not just take you themselves and do everything directly without all the expense and complications of going through Alistair?"
"As a buffer." Peter said simply. "The FBI descended upon Alistair, meanwhile if there was someone else involved they could be half way around the world by now."
"But you don't think they are, you think they are still going to come after me?"
"I really do. I just don't know what to do about it."
"I guess we wait to see if they hit my apartment. Although more than likely whatever they wanted was time sensitive. Alistair had a very tight time schedule."
"In which case there would be no sense in exposing themselves by making another play towards you."
"Exactly. More than likely we'll never hear from them again."
"I hate the idea of never knowing what this was really about."
"I know, but all in all I think we can safely say that we still won this round." Neal smiled.
Peter nodded but Neal could see that he wasn't satisfied to have simply 'survived' the ordeal. He wanted answers and that was not only understandable, but also a good sign that his basic personality was still intact. It wouldn't have been an unreasonable reaction to want to just pull away and hide from what happened rather than face it head on and try to make sense of it and work to find actual justice rather than just seek revenge. Neal could believe Peter's theory about there being another party involved, but at the same time he didn't feel unsafe. After what happened to Alistair he was confident that anyone who might have been using him as a shield would cut their losses.
Neal was just about to suggest to Peter that he voice his concerns to Hughes and let him deal with it so that he could focus on himself when something started ringing. Peter didn't respond to the unfamiliar ring tone at first until he realized it was coming from his pocket. Struggling with his braced hand he pulled a new model of his old phone and answered it. Neal assumed that someone from the office had stopped by with a new phone for Peter and he was sharply reminded of how he needed new phone as well. As though reading Neal's mind Peter reached into his other pocket while he listened to the caller and tossed Neal a phone. Catching the phone Neal opened it and was surprised to find that it was actually his own phone back from the Marshals, glad to have it back he slipped it into his pocket.
"I understand." Peter told the caller simply before hanging up.
Peter contemplated the phone in his hands as though running through in his head what he had wanted to say rather than what he had actually said. He looked around his living room without really seeing it before sighing heavily and putting the phone back in his pocket. Whatever the caller had said it had darkened his mood once more.
"What was that about?" Neal asked.
"Alistair's awake."
"Oh." Neal replied as a chill ran through his blood. "Peter..."
"Come on," Peter said suddenly as he got his bare feet "we have to go to the hospital."
"What? Why?"
"Alistair says he has some important information."
"And he'll only talk to you." Neal guessed.
"A little cliche, but yes."
"What are the odds that he actually has anything useful to say? I think it's far more likely that he just wants to taunt you further."
"I have to at least hear him out."
"Why?"
"It's my job."